Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach

I know I've been slack about updating my blog. I've been working a lot at the Pepper Tree - it's finally gotten busy so time is passing at work more quickly. My last side trip was a spontaneous trip to Whitianga, another town on the Coromandel Peninsula. I had a few days off of work and wasn't sure what I was going to do because it had been raining a lot. I woke up my first day off of work and it was raining again so I decided I shouldn't try to go anywhere. By midday the sun was shining and I walked to the Driving Creek Cafe to have lunch. While waiting for my lunch at the cafe another solo traveler started talking to me. Veronika was from Austria and was heading to Whitianga on a shuttle that afternoon. It had turned out to be a pretty day so I decided to go too. I walked home, packed my backpack and met her at the info center to head off to Whitianga. There was one other traveler on the shuttle - an Australian guy named Adam. During our hour drive to Whitianga we all got to know each other and had plans to meet for dinner that night. I stayed at On the Beach Backpackers - a hostel that is right across the street from the beach...go figure. Veronika, Adam and I ate dinner in town that night. We all wanted to see the same places the next day so we decided to rent a car together which was cheaper than taking a shuttle tour. The next day we rented our car and headed of to Shakespeare's Cliff. There was a really nice view from the top of the cliff and then we hiked down a short trail to Lonely Bay - a pretty, isolated beach. There were tiny seashells covering the beach and the water was freezing, then again I'm a wimp who only likes to swim if it's at least 85 or 90 degrees. We relaxed on the beach for awhile and then headed to Cathedral Cove. It is about a 30 minute hike to get to Cathedral Cove from the carpark (aka: parking lot). It's called Cathedral Cove because there is a huge rock archway that has formed over the beach which resembles a cathedral. You can walk through the archway to a section of white, sandy beach. The beach was wide and beautiful with rocks jutting out of the water on one end. Veronika's job in Austria was a massage therapist so she gave me a nice massage on the beach - the advantages of meeting fellow travelers! We ate lunch and relaxed before heading off to our final stop for the day - Hot Water Beach. Hot Water Beach has hot springs under the earth that bubble up through the sand. The idea is that one hour on each side of low tide you can dig a hole in the sand and sit in your own natural hot tub. The day we were there the tide didn't really go out enough to dig a hole. I found out later it was because the wind was pushing the waves farther into shore than normal. We did see the springs bubbling up through the sand though. I put my foot over it and just about scalded myself - it was so hot! It was so funny to see a bunch of adults walking around with shovels trying to dig holes in the sand with the ocean rushing in on them. After Hot Water Beach we drove back to Whitianga (about a 3o minute drive), showered and then met up for dinner at an Indian restaurant. The next day I had to catch the shuttle back to Coromandel and be at work at 5. It was fun to meet other travelers and have our plans work out so easily. I tried to post a link to my pictures at the top of this blog, but from this computer it's only showing up as a white line. If you click at the top of the blog it should take you to my website with pictures of the trip. I hope it works!

Road Trip

Krista, Jake and I set out on Monday morning for our 3 day road trip. Jake is a new roommate who is living in the corner of our living room. We have a large living room without much furniture so when Jake was unhappy in his previous staff house we told him to come on over. Splitting rent 5 ways for a 2 bedroom house is not bad at all! I guess we should adopt "the more the merrier" as our motto. Back to the road trip... we rented a car, a Nissan Bluebird, from a Coromandel gas station and set off. First of all, driving on the left side of the road is not as hard as I thought it would be. The only problems I had are switching on the windshield wipers when I wanted to turn on the turn signal and glancing up in the wrong direction to look in the rearview mirror. Most of the roads in New Zealand are two lanes so once you get going it's easy to just stay on your side. Everytime I need to turn I just keep saying over and over in my head "left, left, left". Renting a car was great because we could go wherever we wanted and do stupid stuff like stop and take pictures with the giant Lemon & Paeroa bottle.

The first day we headed to Rotorua. We went to the Agrodome where they have an odd combination of a sheep show, a farm tour and adventure activities such as bungy jumping, jet boating, swooping, free falling and zorbing. Krista and Jake did the Swoop (you get wrapped up in a sleeping bag like sack and get raised up in the air then drop down into a giant swing) and the Free fall (you're in a giant wind tunnel and it's supposed to feel like you're skydiving). I decided to conserve my money since I have a lot more trip to go. I decided to just do the Zorb, which Jake and Krista did with me. The Zorb is a huge, inflatable ball with a smaller ball connected to the inside. You get inside the smaller ball and they squirt some water into it. Then they zip you inside and push you down a hill. I chose to do the curvy hill where you go up on the sides of hills and back down. I was slipping and sliding around inside the ball the whole way down. It was really fun! After the Agrodome we drove to see the view of Lake Tarawera and then went to Hell's Gate, which is an area of geothermal activity. We saw bubbling hot springs, mud pots and steaming lakes. Finally at the end of the day we drove about 45 minutes to Whakatane where we stayed at a hostel called Lloyd's Lodge.

Tuesday morning we got up and went on a boat trip to White Island, New Zealand's only active marine volcano. This trip was incredible! It was an hour and a half boat trip just to get to the island and then we took a tour of the island for about 2 hours. On the way to the island we saw a pod of dolphins. They came up and swam right by the bow of the boat! Anybody who knows me knows that was my favorite part of the whole day! After they played around the ship for a few minutes they all took off at once, jumping in and out of the water. It looked like they were racing our boat. One of the tour guides said it was because the dolphins saw us as competition for their food and wanted to get there first. When we got to the island we had to climb into a small dingy to reach the shore. We climbed onto a metal ramp and then over some boulders to get to the sand. The tour of the island was really neat. I can't really describe it - you just have to look at the pictures. There is a huge crater where the volcano has erupted that seeps steam constantly. The colors from the sulphur and other metals were so vibrant. It was cool seeing the scientists taking data from the volcano. On the way back I laid on the front of the boat and took a nap in the sun. When we got back to shore we drove to Tauranga where we spent the night. Tauranga is a neat city right on the harbour with a nice stretch of restaurants and bars right by the water. The hostel we were supposed to stay in looked really crappy so we found another one right by the harbour. It was great - it had a big living room and balcony area that looked out onto the harbour and a really nice kitchen (not that we used it). :) We went out to dinner that night and met up with one of Krista's friends who she had met in Auckland.
On Wednesday we were supposed to go hiking on Mt. Maunganui, but it was raining. We ended up going to breakfast, wandering around the city, and then uploading pictures online for awhile. It was just drizzling later in the afternoon so Krista and I drove over to see Mt. Maunganui and the beach there. We're definitely going to go back at some point. It was a really nice beach! We spent one more night in Tauranga and then drove home early on Thursday morning. It was so nice to get out of Coromandel for a few days and do some exploring!!
The slideshow on the right side of my blog page are from the road trip. If you click on the slide show it will take you to my Picasa Web Albums web page where you can view all of the pictures I've posted so far!

Horseback Riding

My roommates and I went horseback riding at White Star Farms. My horses name was Whiskey. We rode on trails for a lot of the ride, but then we also got to gallop through some fields. We were riding through fields with cows and sheep all over the place. It was a little cloudy and rainy the day we went, but the scenery was still amazing. The girls in the picture with me are Krista and Becs, two of my roommates. The farm was about a 25 minute drive from where we live. The roads to get places around here are ridiculously narrow and curvy.

Coromandel Peninsula

This is a view of part of the Coromandel Peninsula on our way to Coromandel Town. We just pulled off the side of the road to take this picture.

Another picture of the Coromandel Peninsula.
It is beautiful here!

Pictures from Rangitoto

This is the view from the ferry on the way to Rangitoto Island. The island was formed from an erupting volcano. We took the 45 minute ferry ride from Auckland.

A view from Rangitoto Island

Here I am with Matilda, Julie and Caroline. We all met at our hostel in Auckland. They were all traveling alone so we hung out together in Auckland. Matilda was from Denmark, Julie was from Brazil and Caroline was from Germany. We are at the summit of Rangitoto after about an hour hike to the top.

There were lava caves on the island formed from the volcanic lava rock. This one had formed a tunnel that we could walk through. It was dark in the middle of it, but you could see the sunlight shining in from the other end.

Here is a view of the Auckland Harbour Bridge from the island.

Settling In

I'm settling in nicely to Coromandel. I've been here for a week and a half and have been working for a week. The Pepper Tree Restaurant and Bar is run pretty much the same as a restaurant in the US would be. It's definitely the nicest restaurant I've ever worked in with fancy food presentation and a large wine list. There are different sections of the restaurant with different atmosphere's so people can choose what ambience they are looking for. The "restaurant" area is fancy with white table cloths and wine glasses already set up on all the tables along with utensils, water glasses and utensils. The "bar" area is a separate room where the bar is and tables in the same area without table cloths. The back deck is off of the bar and is closed in by plastic window cover things that can be raised in nice weather. Plus we have a big courtyard with lots of tables outside and a cute little covered gazebo with tables that they call the summer house. I'm learning how to make fancy coffees at work using the espresso machine. They don't have regular coffee in pots like at home. You have to pay for each cup individually and it's ground fresh and made right then. People here are much more relaxed when it comes to eating out. I'm realizing how much Americans are always in a rush. At home if a customers entree isn't there right when they are done with their appetizer they start wondering where it is and getting impatient. Here it's rude for the main dish to show up when they are still eating their appetizer and we aren't even supposed to tell the cooks they are ready for their main dish until we have already cleared the appetizer dishes off the table. People will seriously spend hours at the restaurant drinking wine, eating and drinking coffee afterwards. It's just interesting the difference.
My other roommates are Charles and Becks (Rebecca). Charles is Canadian, but finished his teaching degree at a college in New Zealand. Becks is from New Zealand and met Charles when they were both in college. She worked at the Pepper Tree last summer and came back this summer with Charles. They are both really fun. Krista, Charles, Becks and I are having a great time living together. Next weekend we all have Saturday morning off so we're going horse back riding! We get up in the mornings and all go to a little restaurant called Sally's, which sells cheap sandwiches and pies (which are pastry things with meat, cheese and veggies in them).
I've been trying to work as much as I can when I'm in town because there's not a whole lot to do here. I'm saving money for the rest of my trip, which is great. I did go on a good hike the other day. It was really close to where I live and had amazing views of the town and surrounding water. I'll post some pictures now. Hope everyone is doing well at home! Keep me updated about what's going on!!!

Coromandel

Richard picked me up in a red sports car and we sped off to Coromandel, where I will be working at the Peppertree Restaurant and Bar. Once we got out of Auckland the scenery changed to big fields of green and then as we got farther out there were big rolling hills with cows and sheep everywhere. Once we got onto the Coromandel Peninsula Richard stopped at the top of a hill where you could look out and see where the water came up and met the green hills - it was beautiful! Once again, I have pictures that I will try to post soon. We drove up the coastline of the peninsula to get to the town of Coromandel. The coast was rocky with sparkling, calm water. We got to town and I saw where I would be working. The restaurant is right in the middle of town under a big peppertree (surprising huh?). The town is really small with one main road. Everything shuts down early - the grocery store only stays open until 7pm. The views are great - no matter where you are you can look around and see mountains and the town is right by the water. The place where I'm living is pretty plain, but very cheap - only $45/week. I'm sharing a room with Krista, a girl from Canada who has been here a month. She's really nice and I think we'll get along great. I haven't met my other roommmates yet - they were out of town for the weekend. The view out the back of our house is beautiful - all countryside and mountains. I start work tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

A little more of Auckland

I explored some more of Auckland on Wednesday - I went to the Auckland Art Gallery and then walked a big circle around the whole city. I checked out some neat shops and then went that night to play poker with one of the girls from my hostel. It's amazing how many girls I met traveling on their own. It's been great - everyone is so nice and you always have somebody to do stuff with. Anyway, I went to play poker thinking I would meet some locals, but it turns out most of the people playing were from England or Ireland... go figure. The next day 3 girls from my hostel and I caught the ferry to Rangitoto - an island that was formed from the eruption of a volcano. I'll have to add some pictures, but I have to find an internet connection with USB ports. We hike around the island all day and up to the summit. The views were spectacular - you could see all of Auckland and other islands scattered around out in the water. We then hiked to the lava caves where we could actually walk down into a tunnel of lave rock and out the other side. After returning from Rangitoto it was time to pack up and get ready to leave for Coromandel the next day. I talked to Richard, the owner of the Peppertree, on the phone and found out he was coming himself to pick me up from Auckland. Friday morning after I checked out of the hostel one of my roommates and I walked to the Backpackers Car Mart to check out the cars they had for sale. I was thinking it would be nice to buy one to use while I was here and sell it back when I leave, but all of the cars were pieces of crap and I decided it would be more trouble than it's worth. I got back to the hostel and waited for Richard to come get me.
He arrived right on time with two Americans he has working for him along for the ride and we were off......

Around and about Auckland

Yesterday I went to the Auckland museum and saw a Maori performance. They did some traditional dances and songs, plus showed us games they used to play and weapons they used. I met a girl from Brazil who was also traveling alone so she and I walked around the museum together after the performance. There was a lot of interesting information and artifacts about Maori culture and a natural science floor about the different animals and land in New Zealand. There was a really interesting section on volcanoes. I learned that Auckland sits on an active volcanic zone. They expect the volcano to erupt at some point in the future, but they don't know when. Ha!

The beginning of a journey

My trip has finally become a reality! I don't even remember when I first decided I wanted to come to New Zealand, but I really started thinking seriously about it last year. Thanks to the encouragement of my amazing family and friends I made the trip a reality. I applied for a working holiday visa, which I was approved for, and bought a plane ticket to New Zealand - leaving North Carolina on November 3, 2007 and coming home on April 23, 2008. For awhile after buying my ticket I had no idea what I was actually going to do when I got to New Zealand. Between working like crazy this past summer to earn money for the trip I was surfing a website called Seasonal Jobs in NZ. I found a region that sounded neat because it had beach and mountains and started looking at the job listings. There were a few waitressing jobs listed with a button that said "apply online". Thinking I wouldn't hear anything back, I applied for a job halfway around the world. Much to my surprise I got an email back the next day and then a phone call from the owner of the restaurant a couple of days later! So if everything goes as planned I'm heading off to Coromandel on Friday to work at Pepper Tree Bar and Restaurant.
Right now I'm in Auckland where I flew in this morning. After leaving NC at 6:15AM on November 3rd I arrived in Auckland at 7:25AM on November 5th. I walked around Auckland this afternoon, mostly along the waterfront. I'm staying at a hostel in downtown Auckland called Base Backpackers. Tomorrow I think I'm going to check out the Auckland Museum and see a Maori show (Maori's are the indigenous people of New Zealand). I'll keep you posted!